This invention relates to a package for surgical sutures possessing needles affixed to at least one end thereof, i.e., "armed" sutures of the single needle and double needle types.
Packages for combined surgical suture-needle devices, or armed sutures, are constructed according to the nature of the devices and their intended use. There are many sizes of sutures and many materials of construction such as cotton, silk, stainless steel, and braided wire. There are also several types of needles including those of straight and curved configuration.
In general, suture packages for armed sutures are constructed with the objectives of providing safe and secure retention of their contents and ready removal of the sutures, either in a group or one at a time, with a minimum of handling. This requires that the suture be packaged in a manner which facilitates its ready accessibility and removal from the package and that once removed, the suture will exhibit little tendency to bend, kink or coil.
Various packaging arrangements are known for armed sutures, many of which are formed from a blank sheet of paperboard or other stiff material as described in U.S. Pat. Nos., 3,444,994; 3,985,227; 4,089,409; 4,120,395; 4,135,623; 4,533,041; 4,615,435; and, 4,896,767. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,985,227 and 4,135,623 each describes a suture package formed from a single sheet of stiff stock, such as 5-12 point solid bleached sulfate paperboard, which is subdivided into several panels, each panel having a particular function. The packages are specifically designed to accommodate a quantity of double armed sutures having relatively small needles mounted on polypropylene foam blocks, the suture strands being secured to polypropylene foam blocks having suture-receiving slits defined thereon.